PARAGUANA/HOUSTON May 29 (Reuters) - Venezuela's Paraguana
Refining Center (CRP), site of the Amuay and Cardon refineries,
reduced operations to 62 percent of capacity from 67 percent in
March, after halting some units this month for maintenance,
according to a PDVSA document seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The 310,000 barrel per day (bpd) Cardon refinery, which was
working at 86 percent capacity two months ago, reduced its
operations to 68 percent, processing 210,000 bpd of crude after
starting a planned maintenance at one of its crude distillation
units.

Other smaller units were also halted as part of the
maintenance plan, and PDVSA has not said how long that will
last. Two hydrotreaters were out of service or working partially
because of failures, according to the document. A total of 14
plants were not working as of May 27.

The 645,000 bpd Amuay refinery, Venezuela's largest
facility, is operating at 59 percent capacity, without
significant changes in comparison with March.

One of its alkylation units and the isomerization unit are
being prepared for restart in the coming days, but the facility
is having water shortage problems that forced state-run PDVSA to
halt one of the units that produces oxygenates for finished
fuels (TAME) several weeks ago.

In total, Amuay has 16 units out of service compared with
five units halted at the end of March. The 16,000 bpd Bajo
Grande refinery, connected through pipelines to the CRP, is also
out of service. PDVSA has been seeking fuel cargoes to buy on
the open market in recent weeks because of its refinery
problems, amid growing domestic demand.

Earlier this month, the company halted the fluid catalytic
cracker of the 146,000 bpd El Palito refinery for unplanned
maintenance that is still under way.
(Reporting by Sailu Urribarri in Paraguana and Marianna Parraga
in Houston; editing by Terry Wade and Tom Brown)